Starting right from Godfather and Nayakan we have seen many gangster dramas on screen. Some have created history and some have bitten the dust without any trace. Malik is one such story of a gangster told in a different way altogether which is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
Story
Suleiman Ali aka Ali Ikka (Fahadh Faasil) is the messiah of the small fishermen village Ramadapally. Though he took to a wrong way of life along with his best friend David Christudas (Vinay Forrt), he does everything for the good of his village which includes bringing a school in front of the mosque displacing the age-old dumping yard.
In his quest to do good, he has become a victim in the game played by the politicians whose ambitions fuel the communal frenzy in the village thus branding him as a terrorist. The police-politician-bureaucracy nexus is after his blood as local MLA Aboobacker (Dileesh Pothan) and Sub-Collector Anwar Ali (Joju George) play all the cards to capture Suleiman.
How Suleiman and Rosalyn (Nimisha Sayajan) who share a special bond apart from being a husband and wife are able to counter the plans and regain the faith of the villagers is the main story of Malik.
Performances
It’s Fahadh Faasil who powers the narrative of Malik with his terrific performance. From a young small-time smuggler to a powerful man in the village, Fahadh essayed the role of Suleiman with great agility and perfection.
Equally competent was the performance of Nimisha Sayajan, from an ordinary fish-selling educated young lady to a level-headed matured wife of Suleiman and a responsible mother Rosalyn, Nimisha nailed the character with great proficiency.
Vinay Fortt is the other actor who impresses in the role of David who happens to be the brother of Rosalyn and he matches the performances of the lead actors in an appreciable manner.
Other actors, Jalaja as Jameela, Sanal Aman as Freddy, Dinesh Prabhakar as Peter along with Joju George and Dileesh Pothan have done a great job in doing total justice to their characters.
Behind the scenes
A normal gangster drama was presented brilliantly by the writer-director Mahesh Narayanan without overplaying the heroic or gangster elements. This is the beauty of Malik on the whole.
His clarity on the script as well as on what he wanted to convey has made Malik a thoroughly engaging film. The communal tensions and the games politicians play to appease the vote banks are very well portrayed on the screen.
Adding to the crisp narrative, the background score by Sushin Shyam is another plus point of the film that has succeeded in uplifting the whole mood of the film.
The photography by Sanu Varghese has exceptionally captured the beauty of the sea shore adding more zing to the narrative.
Final Verdict
Malik is a thought-provoking film that takes a strong dig at the political system. It’s not just a crime or gangster drama film that goes in the normal flow, it’s more than that as it depicts the ground reality around us in a true sense. Not to be missed film for its authenticity, technical brilliance and over-the-top performances, all put together.
